Haryana’s sex ratio at birth has slipped again, and this time the fall is steep enough to worry officials who had spent a decade trying to fix it. Fresh government data for the first half of 2026 shows the state’s overall sex ratio at birth at 900 girls per 1,000 boys, down from 923 in 2025. Eleven of the state’s 22 districts now sit below the state average, and five of them are below 900. For a state with a long and troubled history on this issue, the numbers have reopened a debate that many had hoped was fading.
What is Haryana’s current sex ratio at birth?
According to Civil Registration System data reported by The Tribune, Haryana’s sex ratio at birth for January to June 2026 stood at 900, a drop of 23 points compared with the same period last year. Of the 2,30,068 births registered in the state till June 30, 1,21,072 were boys and 1,08,996 were girls.
Here is how the worst affected districts compared against the state average of 900.
| District | Sex Ratio At Birth (H1 2026) |
| Charkhi Dadri | 829 |
| Mahendragarh | 869 |
| Gurugram | 871 |
| Jhajjar | 871 |
| Jind | 878 |
| Panipat | 880 |
| Ambala | 884 |
| Rewari | 891 |
| Hisar | 895 |
| Yamunanagar | 895 |
| Kurukshetra | 901 |
Charkhi Dadri’s number stands out. Earlier this year, a separate report by The Federal noted that the district’s sex ratio at birth had plunged from 913 in 2025 to as low as 768 in the first four months of 2026, a fall officials linked to unchecked illegal ultrasound networks operating in the area.
Why is the Haryana sex ratio at birth falling again?
Officials associated with the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme point to a mix of causes. One factor cited is the frequent transfer of senior IAS officers overseeing the campaign at the district level. “When there is no consistent leadership, districts don’t take these targets seriously. They know that the officer who is monitoring them today will be gone in a few months,” an official told ThePrint, speaking on condition of anonymity, in a report published in May 2026.
A second factor is enforcement. The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, or PNDT Act, bans doctors from revealing a foetus’s sex, but experts say enforcement has grown weaker over the years. The Haryana health department has moved to set up dedicated PNDT police cells in every district, headed by a DSP rank officer, following a decision by the State Task Force in April 2025.
Virender Yadav, Director of the National Health Mission in Haryana and convenor of the State Task Force, said the department has been strict about enforcement. “We have been strictly implementing the PCPNDT Act in the state. As a result, registrations of 300 erring MTP centres have been cancelled or voluntarily withdrawn,” Yadav said, as reported by The Tribune in April 2025.
What is the background of female foeticide in Haryana?
Haryana’s problem with skewed sex ratios goes back decades and is tied closely to a strong cultural preference for male children in the state. The crisis became a national talking point after the 2011 Census, when Haryana recorded a child sex ratio, for children aged 0 to 6, of just 834 girls per 1,000 boys, the worst among major Indian states at the time. The overall sex ratio at birth that year stood at 879.
That record is why the central government chose Panipat in Haryana to launch the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme on January 22, 2015. The scheme brought real gains for several years. The sex ratio at birth rose from 876 in 2015 to 914 in 2017 and 2018, then peaked at 923 in 2019, before a Covid era dip and a later recovery back to 923 in 2025.
The 2026 slide has put that decade of progress in question. Haryana also continues to top national figures on PNDT Act violations. A Union health ministry report had earlier found that Haryana accounted for 158 of 387 cases filed nationwide under the sex determination category of the Act, more than any other state.
Why does this concern go beyond just numbers?
Haryana’s low sex ratio has never existed in isolation. The state has for years carried a difficult reputation on violence against women, including cases of honour related killings tied to inter caste and inter community relationships, often linked to the influence of khap panchayats, informal caste councils that have opposed such unions. Courts, including the Punjab and Haryana High Court, have repeatedly described female foeticide itself as a serious form of violence against women. In one 2025 order, the court said the practice denies a woman “her most basic and fundamental right i.e the right to life.“
Taken together, a skewed sex ratio at birth and a history of gender based violence point to the same underlying pattern, a preference for sons and a devaluation of daughters that shows up in different forms across a woman’s life, from before birth to after marriage.
What comes next for Haryana’s sex ratio at birth?
Officials say the sex ratio at birth typically improves in the second half of the year, and past data supports that trend. But 2026 has already erased years of gains in a matter of months. The state government has widened its response, enlisting religious leaders such as pandits, maulvis and granthis to counsel newlyweds against sex selection, alongside police cells meant to break up illegal ultrasound networks.
Whether these steps can reverse the trend will likely become clear only when full year data is released, and when the next Census offers the more reliable, door to door count that experts say the country still lacks.